One Laptop Per Child will ship a special version of Windows on their low cost laptops for poor children, the two companies announced this afternoon. Previously the laptops, which to date have been tested in a number of countries, ran only Linux. Trials of the Windows version of the machines will begin in June in “key emerging markets.” OLPC is also working with third parties to port its user interface, called Sugar, to Windows, and is hoping to have a machine with dual boot options to allow “users” to choose between operating systems.

There are no financial terms being disclosed, although it wouldn’t be dumb to assume that not only is the software being supplied for free, but Microsoft made a healthy donation to the organization as well. The last thing Microsoft wants is for anyone who’s computer literate to think that a world without Microsoft Windows is possible.

On the upside, though, the pain of having to deal with Windows crashes may make some of these kids excellent technical support people over time. They’d just get lazy with Linux being so stable all the time.

If it isn’t obvious from what I’ve written above, I’m not impressed. OLPC is in danger of becoming a celebrity cause rather than a real attempt to bridge the digital divide. My guess is Linux worked just fine as an operating system for these machines.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Amid all the rancor between One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Intel, which joined the not-for-profit project and then left it last Friday, a new for-profit startup has been spun off from OLPC to commercialize the technology inside the little green laptop designed for children in poor nations. Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technology officer of OLPC (and a former Intel manager), has left to start Pixel Qi. The idea is to license some of the core technologies inside the OLPC—sunlight-readable screens, a low-power OS, and other sub-systems—to other manufacturers of laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras. That way, these components can reach the manufacturing scale necessary to bring their price down. At the same time, Pixel Qi will make its components available to OLPC “at cost.”

Jepsen explains her low-power, low-cost, green approach to computer design here and states that one of Pixel Qi’s goals is the creation of a $75 laptop. Some of you will recall that the original goal of OLPC was to create a $100 laptop, but that price was later hiked up to $176 and then $188 (if you want to donate a laptop on the OLPC site, it costs $200, with shipping). It seems a bit premature to announce a $75 laptop when we are still waiting for the $100 one. But it is not inconceivable that we will get there in 12 to 18 months.

The bigger issue here is that OLPC is having trouble getting to the scale it needs. Instead of the three million orders OLPC once boasted it would have by the end of 2007, it ended up selling only 162,000 (most of those through a “Give One. Get One” program aimed at socially-conscious consumers in the U.S.). Failing to get to scale as a not-for-profit entity, it appears to be trying the for-profit route with Pixel Qi, who’s stated goal is “leveraging a larger market for new technologies, beyond just OLPC: prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of the key technology advances.” It is not a bad strategy if Jepsen can find any takers for her technology.

But it makes you wonder whether OLPC would have been better off going the for-profit route from the beginning.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0